A colored photocopy on the bus stop sign alerted us to Passeggiata Zampognara to take place on January 3. They would start near the church in the Piazza S. Maria Liberatrice at "ore 16:00." We could understand enough of the sign to want to see the event and to figure out where it was to be held--the central square in Testaccio, a neighborhood in SE Rome, just across the Tiber River from where we live.
Since it was supposedly in honor of Befana, the good witch of the Epiphany, we expected a parade of costumed witches giving gifts to children. That is what the Befana does. We have been quite interested in finding Befana, who is a character we have never heard of in the United States. Instead, we found a trio of Italian bagpipers in long black capes playing for the assembled folks which included children, elders, and everyone in between. Also us.
Then they led the way and we all strolled along with them throughout the neighborhood. It was a totally low key event and so much fun. We were in the passeggiata rather than watching. An organizer picked a few folks from the group to line up to stop traffic at intersections--all of us having some responsibility along the way. The musicians stopped and played at bars and the patrons came out and joined the group. So our numbers grew as we went along for about an hour, maybe more.
The leader of the pipers is Alessandro Mazziotti, who has quite a resume when you track him down on the internet. Here is a link to him playing his pipes on you tube. Alessandro Mazziotti playing Italian pipes The song he is playing on the you tube video is called "Song of the Earth." Today as we strolled around Testaccio, he was playing "Songs of the Wind". To my ear they were similar. They did not have the strong rhythm which we hear in Scots or Irish piping.
Here is a recording from the Library of Congress recorded in 1917 of Italian pipers in New York.
http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/6198/
It has stronger rhythm and melody.
The Museum of Music in Trastevere, near us, a sponsor of today's event, says that this tradition of Passeggiata Zampognara was a tradition in Rome since about 800. The best pipers of south and central Italy came to Rome in the Christmas season to play. It died out in the 1870's because all street musicians had to get a permit. Since 2002, the city government is trying to revive the tradition and our stroll through Testaccio with pipers and all the neighbors is part of the revival effort. It was a sweet event with neighborhood folks walking together with musicians. All we had to do was show up and we were in it too.
WHERE IS BEFANA?
We will have a couple more days to find Befana. January 6 is the Epiphany, Twelfth Night, the end of the Christmas Season. Befana supposedly flies around on her broom at midnight and delivers gifts to the stockings of good children and coal (or coal candy) to those who are less than perfect. There is a Christmas Market in Piazza Navona where she is likely to show up and where they sell all the right things for the stockings. We visited the Christmas market earlier in the season but the merchants were on strike against the city government who had tried to enforce some anti-corruption measures. They had a dramatic coffin showing the demise of the Christmas Market. We have not been back to find out whether the Epiphany Market will take place. We do not know where else to get our candy coal-the required food of the season. Hope Befana has not demised in the coffin with the Christmas market.
PHOTOS
These photos show Alessandro Mazziotti (with white beard) as well as the other pipers and the followers. We tried to get a good view of the actual pipes, as we think they are not well known in the U.S. The skins are animal skin; all the instruments have 3 wooden pipes. On one of the instruments, the pipes are notably shorter but in the mix of music, I could not tell if it made a difference in the sound.
Photos by Nancy; text by Julianne. January 3, 2015
Update on Jan 11, 2015
1831. B. Pinelli. Pipers playing in Rome for the Christmas season.
Bartolomeo Rossetti, La Roma di Bartolomeo Pinelli, Norton Compton, Rome. 1985, 2006
Bartolomeo Pinelli did a series of engravings of Roman life in the early 1800's. The text in the book is by both Rossetti and Pinelli. Among the hundreds of engravings are 3 of pipers with their zampognara playing for Christmas celebrations in Rome. Since my Italian is poor and Google translate is unreliable, I am not sure I have the information correct. But it appears to say that the pipers were shepherds or other pastoral workers who came to Rome from as far as the Naples area to play for Christmas events and to play on the streets during the season.
The Norton Compton website returned no results but Google has many of the images so They may be in the public domain now.
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